In 2018, the cost of feeding a child at school for a whole year is still a snip at just £13.90. Mary's Meals is now providing school meals to well over a million children, in some of the world's poorest communities. As seen in the window of a cafe in Lilongwe, Malawi:
"If you think education is expensive - try ignorance."
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Friday, 19 October 2012

“Relate in
Al-Kitab[1] the story of Maryam, when she withdrew from her
family to a place in the east.

She
placed a screen to screen herself from them; then we sent to her our angel, and
he appeared before her as a man in all respects.

She said:I seek refuge from you to Allah most gracious: come not near if you fear
Allah.

He said:
"No,I am only a messenger from your Lord, to announce to you the
gift of a holy Son."

She said:
"How shallI have a son, seeing that no man has touched me andI
am not unchaste?"

He said:
"So it will be: Your Lord says, 'That is easy for Me: and we wish to
appoint Him as a sign to men and a mercy from us.' It is a matter so
decreed."

So she
conceived Him, and she retired with Him to a remote place.” [Surah 19:16-22]

…the same Mary,
reckoned by many to have been a primary source for St Luke’s Gospel:

“And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God
into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose
name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the
angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and
thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel
said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.[…] And Mary
said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the
angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.And behold thy cousin
Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth
month with her that is called barren: Because no word shall be impossible with
God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according
to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” [Luke 1:26-30, 34-38]

Thankfully there were no great trials
attending my arrival and passage through customs etc at the airport in Mexico
City. Spotting two sisters of the order of Poor Clares[2]
who had arrived on the same flight, i gave them each little pictures of St
Francis of Assisi that i’d picked up in Fukuoka. Since my Spanish was so
flimsy, i addressed myself to an English-speaking woman at an information desk,
who was rather non-plussed when i asked about the best way of walking to the
Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Our Lord was under no obligation to undergo the
strains and humiliations of His fully human Incarnation. He could have come
straight down from Heaven as a grown man, in the way He is expected to appear
in His Second Coming. But He desired to be conceived of the Virgin Mary, born
at Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth, as a preparation for His ministry and His
saving death on the cross. In other words, He chose to do things the hard way;
to go the long way round; to be a Martyr,
so that there is no trace of imposture when He is called Emmanuel – ‘God with us’[3].
This is the nature of His invincible solidarity
with His children, the supreme mark of His perfect love for every single one of
us. So pilgrimage on some level is a very human, and therefore fallible and
imperfect, but nonetheless sincere, striving for a semblance of this solidarity,
with the poor and with God Himself, in being ready, like them and like Him, to do things the hard way. There is no real
love without sacrifice.

Mexico City

Not
that, setting foot on the New World for the first time, i was faced with a very
long walk from the airport to the Basilica; 10 kilometres or so, mostly along
the edge of a central ring road. I was soon struck by the preponderance of ageing
VW Beetles – somewhere in the region of one in three vehicles. The weather was
warm rather than hot, the sun trying to pierce a thin covering of cloud. In a
little park where i stopped for a rest a statue of Charlie Chaplin invited a
photograph. In due course the carriageway took me to a turning for La Calzada de los Misterios, leading to
the Basilica. In Aztec times this was a causeway, washed on either side by the
shallow waters of Lake Texcoco, connecting the island capital of Tenochtitlan (now the core of Mexico
City) to the hill of Tepeyac on the mainland. Bernal Diaz de Castillo, one of
600 Spaniards under the command of Hernan Cortés, who entered Tenochtitlan on 8th
November 1519, described the scene thus:

"And when we saw
so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry
land and that straight and level Causeway going towards Mexico, we were amazed
and said that it was like the enchantments they tell of in the legend of
Amadis, on account of the great towers and temples and buildings rising from
the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers said that all
these things seemed to be a dream...There is so much to ponder in this, and i
do not know how to tell it, for never was there seen, nor heard, nor even
dreamt, anything like that which we then observed."

﻿

Ever present: VW Beetle, Mexico City

[1] In Islam, Al-Kitab denotes the ‘People of the Book’, ie Christians and Jews.

[2] Followers of St Clare of Assisi,
the contemporary and spiritual soul-mate of St Francis.

[3] “And she shall bring forth a Son: and thou shalt call
His name JESUS. For He shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was
done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying:
Behold a Virgin shall be with Child, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call
His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” [Mt 1:21-23]

About Me

Hi, I'm James Bruce, a 41 year old chap from Bristol in England. I set off on 22 March 2013 from Blantyre, Scotland, with the aim of reaching Blantyre, Malawi, with God's help. I am raising money for Mary's Meals, the non-denominational charity that feeds children worldwide and helps them gain an education. I paid for all my expenses myself, thanks to a legacy from my late grandfather. If you would like to donate please call call 0800 698 1212 or visit www.marysmeals.org.uk.
I hope you will accompany me on this journey from wherever you are! God bless, James